Epistulae (XII Libri)
While you seek the open sea with words arranged in calm harbor, and describe the uncertainties of the liquid element...
I know I have undertaken a hard campaign and am lifting a heavy burden on weak shoulders — I who have roused your...
Faustus, from Ennodius.
Faustus, from Ennodius.
**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Milan
Faustus, from Ennodius.
Faustus, from Ennodius.
The exchanges of letters are delightful when conceived by a learned author — those in which the splendor of polished...
While you speak of honeycombs and compose the honey of a liquid element with the nectar of eloquence through waxen...
I would return the favor, were it not that returned praise would burden the affection of a friend's heart.
You ought to relieve one who loves you with the favor of conversation and reveal your devoted affection by the...
If you ask why, though punished by your silence, the bold face of modesty does not keep still, and if you say my...
My heart is troubled since your Greatness, so careful in observing fairness and so tenacious in friendship, has...
Faustus, from Ennodius.
It is the same thing to observe no limit in arrogance as to exceed the bounds of humility.
Your Brotherhood could have rendered my love a service that would have profited with the true liberality of the...
Faustus, from Ennodius.
How well it is that what you modestly decline, you happily emulate; and while you complain that your Greatness is...
How I would wish to neglect the duty of visitation more often, if the fault brings so sweet a reward — and knowingly...
Faustus, from Ennodius.
For a long time I was in suspense about the arrival of Your Greatness, uncertain whether the delay meant a change of...
**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Pavia
Affection loses its vigor when debilitated by silence.
What on earth is the reason for your being so miserly with your letters?
Desire for your letters has made me write first — a reversal I accept without complaint.
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[Magnus Felix Ennodius (473/4-521) was a Gallo-Roman aristocrat who became Bishop of Pavia in 514.
My silence was demanded by hurt — hurt that grew deeper while it plotted its revenge at the expense of affection.
How heavily sinners are crushed by the weight of their own deeds — everything that is offered is snatched from...
No one among the wise doubts that a sacred promise must be kept, and that a friendship wedded to fertile kindling...
Between friends, silence is never a good punishment for an offense.
How long will this abstinence be permitted?
**From:** Ennodius, deacon and man of letters, Pavia
The necessities of others serve my own desires like willing soldiers, since in carrying out a favor for other...
As a certain towering authority on eloquence has observed, the true art of letter-writing lies in a studied...
If the heavenly ruler had looked at my merit, I would have received scant blessings — or none at all.
What am I to do when you write things that demand a reply, and yet your own foresight has already anticipated...
Your Eminence fulfills the prophetic oracles with your own conduct and wages war against the authority of ancient...
**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Milan
The enemy might count it a profit if, among the dangers that Christians face, the voices of those who share their...
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It would have been proper for the distinguished Panfronius to carry his own introduction — a man of his stature...
No one should condemn competence simply because it arrives without ornamental packaging.
I have good reasons for what I write, and I trust you will find them compelling.
I overflow with joy, and happiness does not limp.
Forgive me for replying so quickly — I still owe something to my age: an unruly haste.
Four times I have sent letters to Your Greatness, and four times the silence has answered me.
The man who labors at unnecessary expense to secure a favor works in vain when the same result would have come...
Ennodius the deacon to his lord Faustus.
Ennodius the deacon to his lord Faustus.
Ennodius the deacon to Faustus the quaestor.
Friendship either nourishes or sustains — and sometimes both at once.
You live in the neighborhood, and yet you write as though continents divided us — which is to say, you do not write...
**From:** Ennodius, deacon (later bishop) of Pavia
The first and finest thing — beyond any doubt fitting for a man of holy vocation — is to do spontaneously for the...
Though the exchange of letters belongs more to joy than to grief, and though a tongue stumbling under the confusion...
When the opportunity to write is both personal and friendly, why should I hold back from the page as though I lacked...
What a sweet thing the business of your letters is -- they bring me a spiritual gift!
I would be swollen with pride at the flattery of your letters if I were not kept in check by my own awareness of my...
One must surrender to the command of love: affection holds me bound, and I have given it my words — so that the...
Who could forget your affection and not be accounted inhuman?
If giving offense results in a doubling of your letters, how I wish the calm tranquility of your serene heart could...
I have kept my silence long enough, and silence — when it runs too long between friends — begins to feel less like...
**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Pavia
If the memory of your affection for me has not been stripped from your mind, then my concern is groundless and this...
God's gifts are doubled for those who hope, and heavenly grace overflows with a twofold blessing.
The solicitude I feel for you, which grows daily through the bond of kinship that links my affection to yours, would...
Frequent letters would serve both kinship and love, as they should.
**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Pavia
It has been a long time since my spirit enjoyed the refreshment your letters once provided.
Now that your merits have received the dignity they deserve, I write to add my voice to the chorus of congratulations.
To what a height your friendship has raised me!
Thanks be to God, who, in keeping with my desires, makes my correspondence purposeful rather than idle, so that the...
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The man I commend to you needs few words from me: his own reputation and your long acquaintance with him make a...
Hope mocks me — it demands the frequency of letters but offers no guarantee that they will be received, much less...
Among friends who both love and hold the power to act, a good word carries its greatest weight.
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That gratitude should lose its footing among you is a possibility I cannot easily accept.
Your Greatness is present, and your presence changes everything.
I do not know whether Your Greatness is pleased or displeased with me, and the uncertainty is worse than either outcome.
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Whenever the sluggishness of the senses threatens to overwhelm me, the urgency of friendship pulls me back.
I marvel at the splendor of Your Greatness's fame — a fame that grows not through self-promotion but through the...
Although the quality of letters cannot always match the quality of the affection behind them, the attempt is never...
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My pages serve their purpose — they carry to you the devotion that prompts them.
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A good commander knows to encourage the proven valor of a soldier who has been tested in battle, so that courage,...
The venerable priest Amantius, by requesting that I send a letter to you, has made my act of devotion a matter of...
Thanks be to God, the Holy Trinity — who sustains, through the vigor of a strong man at his side, the weight of sins...
Copy of a letter which he himself dictated.
The distinguished Dalmatius — a man who holds no mere fraction but the full portion of my heart, and whose splendid...
I believed that once Your Greatness was devoted to the public good and your leisure had been transformed into glory...
Ennodius to Julianus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious], Count of the Patrimony.
[Pope Symmachus (r. 498-514) was a pope whom Ennodius energetically defended during the disputed papal election of...
The polished art of letter-writing, when it is carried away by enthusiasm, tends to lose its judgment.
It was not presumption that brought me to the duty of writing to you, for to address a man of great power and virtue...
The man who reveals a friendly conscience through clear proofs takes away the need for idle speculation.
It is the nature of things that anxiety should turn to joy and complaint should become praise whenever our desires...
Ennodius to Constantius, the Illustrious.
Things that are often given with modest means gain a value beyond their cost whenever they flow from a generous heart.
The road to a favorable hearing is easier when the petition comes from a source that the powerful already trust.
A reply would rightly be owed to multiple previous letters.
It is rightly believed that the tongue announces what lies within the heart.
In championing causes that deserve their day in court, a man does not deny his own services to the truth.
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The virtue of diligence is exercised and strengthened through the regular discipline of correspondence.
Your subdeacon Vigilius has proven through experience the qualities that earned him your appointment.
Although the distinguished Laurentius attends to your cause with the devotion it deserves, I add my own voice — not...
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A sick spirit endures silence no more than a sick body endures stillness.
If the old bond of affection that came down from our parents still holds any force, then our friendship is not...
The omen is favorable, and heaven confirms what we dared to hope.
The haste of the carrier forces me to be brief — a discipline I accept more readily when imposed by circumstance...
If things had gone as I wished, this letter would carry a different message.
The utility of heavenly counsel is never wasted on those who seek it with a sincere heart.
After the first hope you raised, I waited — and the waiting was the hardest part.
Although we have exchanged many letters on many subjects, the conversation is not exhausted.
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**From:** Ennodius, Bishop of Pavia
Ennodius to Apronianus, the Illustrious.
When you directed your words in support of the sacred demands of conscience during the election of the Bishop of...
While my mind was tossing between hope and fear in anxious uncertainty about you, you opened up sure signs of your...
Ennodius to Opilio, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious].
The fulfillment I have long sought in my desires has come at last.
I would happily draw out the occasion that has earned me such frequent letters from you — if doing so did not burden...
The reverence I owe your holy way of life and the affection I bear you personally have joined forces to compel this...
Although you have often recognized the meagerness of my talent, you nonetheless wished to risk the fasting of a...
[Petrus has recently received a promotion at court.
May the divine power second our honorable desires.
While the apostolic see is graced by the care of Your Holiness's crown, and the heavenly governance of the Church...
You will judge for yourself the man I commend to you — a man whose liberal education has made him worthy of...
First, thanks be to God, who has wiped away the clouds from my eyes that an indescribable pain had produced —...
We know that the sacraments of a religious vocation free those who hold them from the entanglements of sin — not...
Students gain confidence from the perfection of their masters.
Prayer offered to God in earnest is never stripped of the outcome it hopes for.
Great are the commands of joy: the man who lacks happiness lacks the ability to understand it.
Your Greatness does well when you honor both your birth and your character equally.
It is scarcely possible for a man absorbed in successful ventures to spare attention for the claims of correspondence.
I do not wonder at your silence regarding words — for I know you well enough to expect it.
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If the proximity of blood should inspire diligence of mind, then you and I have no excuse for silence.
If it were permitted to engage Your Greatness on equal terms, I would speak more freely.
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Sins resist the fulfillment of our desires — that is the simple truth of our condition.
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If I did not love you to distraction, and if the solidity of my pious affection did not rest on an unshakeable...
The greatest joy of all is a letter-carrier who turns up at just the right moment — one who, as a servant of...
[Euprepia was likely Ennodius's sister or a close kinswoman.
I have not written in order to burden you with the bitter news of my affliction, but rather to urge your concern —...
My confidence has not been stripped bare by the outcomes I have already come to know.
Philosophy has nothing to teach a man who has already surpassed his teachers.
It has been a long time now that I, suspended by genuine longing, have been nourished only by the service of letters.
Though the consolation of your letters has been withdrawn from me — for my sins — I still do not cease writing,...
Although the protection of a bishop rests upon the innocence that is the companion of his office, and although the...
God, who planted in your soul the desire for good works, will Himself watch over their fulfillment.
After our common lord departed from the city of Milan, my sole consolation has been the hope that letters might do...
To Liberius, Eugenetes, Agapitus, Senarius, and Albinus.
Another person's need makes me importunate, because I owe it to those in difficulty to speak on their behalf.
I know that my silences cry out to you as loudly as any letter, and that nothing happens between us that goes unnoticed.
The providence above arranges things well: while I am making my request of you from one direction, events themselves...
Conversations between friends should not always be driven by business.
The distinguished lord Senarius commends himself to your attention through this letter, and I add my own endorsement...
Your Greatness has done what both honor and affection required, and I write to acknowledge it with the gratitude it...
Since the opportunity to see you that my desires craved has been denied, I turn to letters as the next best thing.
The taste of blessings is unknown to those who live in prosperity.
I seized the occasion to discharge the duty of humble deference that I owe you.
Diligence is the cause of many letters.
**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Pavia
Although the rights of affection that blood kinship confers might seem to make a letter unnecessary, I write anyway...
Your Greatness knows what devotion I bear you.
**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Pavia
The richness of your conscience overflows into everything you do.
Those whom fortune favors often attract the attention of those who seek to share in their success.
Although the distinguished man I commend to you hardly needs my introduction, custom and affection require that I...
The magnitude of my grief cannot be contained in a letter.
The watchful care of Your Beatitude for the Church and its servants is known to all, and I write to commend both the...
**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Milan (later bishop of Pavia)
I know that the weight of your shared responsibilities leaves little room for the claims of private friendship.
Although Your Greatness requires no elaboration from me, the obligations of friendship require at least a letter.
Amid the cares and difficulties that press upon us all, the consolation of correspondence is one of the few...
The dispensation of heaven arranges our affairs with a wisdom we rarely appreciate at the time.
So it turns out that the friendship we professed was false — or at least, your silence suggests as much.
**From:** Ennodius, bishop of Pavia
By following the instructions of Your Greatness, I am discharging a duty I owe, since a man comes close to justice...
How much is added to the burden of grief when affliction is interrupted — when adversity, to sting all the more...
I would retrace the prayers with which I pleaded with Your Magnitude on your departure, except that I wish to avoid...
The letters that normally serve my affection as willing messengers are now, for once, drafted by pain.
Although the king's business rightly claims the first loyalty of a man like you, my lord — and although the...
When friends owe a debt of correspondence and pay it jointly, the creditor can hardly complain about the terms.
Perfect love does not suffer the losses of bodily absence, nor is the serene union of souls diminished by the...
I have written to you before about my health, and I write again now — not because the news has changed, but because...
The grandeur you avoid in your letters you possess by nature.
Having performed the duty of a persistent creditor, I now call in the debt of a promise.
It pains me that a man so richly endowed with the gifts of eloquence should withhold them from one who would value...
There would be no excuse left for the unskilled if they said too much.
If it were permitted to defer what has been commanded, I would have been granted a delay by the very man who gave...
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Thanks be to God, whose generosity toward Your Greatness has exceeded what mere human merit could claim.
**From:** Ennodius, deacon in Pavia
If you had been concerned about my humble person, the concern would have shown itself in action.
If a judge of humble persons takes the trouble to hear their case, how much more should a man of your stature attend...
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While the servants of the wine-press were completing the bounty of autumn — and the whole countryside was occupied...
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Your Eminence's voice carries more weight in a single line than lesser men achieve in pages.
Your Greatness extends the festivities of the wedding, and the joy that attends them spreads like ripples in water.
Our common son Marcellus demands of me the admonition that his progress requires.
The law that desire writes for friendship is one I know well — it compels the pen when reason might counsel silence.
You have carried out my wishes beyond what I dared to request, and I write to thank you.
I choose the loss of modesty over the loss of opportunity.
My wishes have been fulfilled through your efforts, and I write to acknowledge both the result and the agent.
I do not submit my letter to the judgment of critics — it was written for a friend, not for an audience.
The hope placed in the young is solid, and their progress confirms what our faith in them anticipated.
Silence would have been the proper response to your own silence — an eye for an eye, as it were.
Full of the best hopes for you, and wishing you every good fortune, I reach for the pen of letter-writing.
It would be only fitting for Your Greatness to display the riches of your talent while following the teachings of...
[Messala appears to be a young man of good family whose rhetorical education Ennodius is overseeing -- or at least...
You left for distant parts and forgot all about friendship.
There is no need to commend with elaborate words the artisans sent by the holy bishop.
I would have you know that my affection for you does not waver with distance or cool with the passage of time.
Among holy consciences, no one denies what is owed to love.
I thought my previous letter would have drawn a reply by now, but the roads are uncertain and carriers unreliable —...
If the divine favor has at last turned you from your habit of negligence toward the correspondence I have long...
May the supreme Judge order your prayers favorably.
I am astonished that you disfigure with ugly silence the Roman polish of your education.
You can judge from the quality of your own heart how tightly I hold you and with what devotion I embrace you.
I would be lying about my affection if I did not confess that your departure left a wound.
I would have kept my difficulties to myself, had I not understood that your concern for me makes my silence a form...
Before the test, the loyalty of friends is hidden.
I have not forgotten my debt to you, nor have I withdrawn from the duties that affection requires.
I believe that my prayers reach you even when you are unaware of them.
The bearer of this letter compelled me to take up my pen again — not that I needed much compelling.
Although every frequency of letters may seem insufficient to express what I feel, the attempt itself has value.
If I could follow you in body, I would spare myself the trouble of words.
If I could erase my previous letter by writing a better one, I would multiply my pages endlessly — always improving,...
Who more justly learns the signs of my prosperity than you?
The distinguished Eleutherius, in a matter of his own that the Vicar had accepted for hearing from the lord Prefect,...
Your kindness transcends the ordinary measure of human generosity.
As soon as heavenly grace restored me, my first thought was of you.
A man who desires your letters cannot remain silent himself, nor should the one who seeks conversation set the...
Although the world around us remains unsettled, the bonds between friends provide a stability that events cannot shake.
What return of correspondence I have earned from you, you alone can measure.
Your error does not bring me joy — but neither does it shake my affection.
Bitter illness has laid me low, and from this bed I write to you with what strength remains.
The high regard in which I hold Your Greatness has demanded this exchange of letters, but the haste of the carrier...
A necessary matter of practical importance has prompted this letter.
What you are to me and what I am to you — these are things that titles cannot change and promotions cannot diminish.
The divine declarations that illuminate your way of life are the same ones that guide my own.
The unloveliness of the situation speaks for itself, and I will not make it worse by dwelling on details that only...
Learning had nearly lost its claim to public attention — until you restored it.
Although my poor efforts cannot adequately praise your accomplishments, the attempt itself is a duty I owe to...
Petition is never ineffective when it reaches a man of justice and compassion.
If you have deigned to read these lines, then the old bond between us still holds — and that is all I needed to know.
The repetition of a request accuses a good conscience of forgetfulness.
The grief of those who truly love is inconsolable by ordinary means.
The reports of your illness have reached me, and I write with the urgency that love demands.
Has there ever been a time when you were free from the obligation of my letters?
I would like you to look kindly on my effort and forgive the poverty of my talent, because it is wrong to despise...
Your Eminence's conscience is well aware of what we owe to the distinguished Faustinus — both on account of his...
It would be like helping the sun with torches or enriching the sea with a tiny drop of water -- that is how...
If my humble petition still held any place in Your Eminence's memory, you would have made it known through frequent...
The dispensation of heaven joins in affection through the gift of letters those whom it has united in love.
Your name promises what I hope your character delivers: blessedness.
I bless the threefold unity in majesty of our God, who has lifted me up amid my distresses by the gift of union with...
The strength of a friendship is proved not by grand gestures but by steady correspondence.
You have taken up our counsel — though I am not entirely sure which particular advice you followed.
It is flattery, not the sacrament of true goodwill, when affection is shown only to those who are present.
I received your letter, rich with the wealth of many joys, and I give thanks for the grace God has shown in...
I endure the absence of your letters if — as it seems — your silence is the price of excellence.
Believe me when I say that I am a stranger in my own land with you absent.
May God commend your holiness to His own mercy and loving care.
It is well with my spirit that the burden of sin that weighed upon your soul has been lifted by divine grace.
I should have replied to your letter long ago, and the delay weighs on me.
The faith of reputation is not lame when it rests on the testimony of trustworthy witnesses.
A letter would be sufficient proof of the care I bear you — and so I send one.
For a long time my soul hung in uncertainty, not knowing whether your silence meant neglect or misfortune.
It is right for me to hope for what is good, and right for you to fulfill it.
Even if the inhuman distance of Pontus makes you forgetful of me, I will not return the favor.
I place my hope in the Trinity, our God, through the intercession of the saints, that the outcome we seek will be...
The infusion of heavenly mystery has granted me the opportunity to address Your Greatness, and I seize it with both...
All would be well with my spirit if you would at least condescend to write.
It pleases me that Your Greatness has noticed my devotion.
I know you well enough to trust that your devotion will only grow with time.
I owe you a letter, and I pay the debt gladly.
The duty I am charged with grows harder in harsh conditions.
If the spirit of the poets were mine to command, I would summon it now — for the subject of this letter deserves an...
In the sign of Christ.
While God continues to grant us pleasant days, I seize the moment to write — because joy, like all things, is...
How much your friendship has meant to me, only God fully knows — and perhaps you have some inkling.
What I had hoped for on the basis of your reputation, I now confirm through the evidence of your letters.
Where are those who say that prosperity makes men forget their friends?
Good fortune that arrives without warning is the best kind, because it carries no burden of anticipation.